Contractors shun road project
A TENDER for the construction of Mahuhwe-Kanyemba Road in Mbire District has found no takers due to high costs involved, Mashonaland Central provincial draughting officer Mr Bernard Hari said.
Speaking at an investment conference recently at Kanyemba Falcon Lodges Mr Hari said all bridges along the Mahuhwe-Kanyemba Road are single carriageway and they will be upgraded to dual carriage.
“We undertook to construct 3,5 kilometres of road from the pontoon landing bay, but we only managed to complete 30 percent of that road before we suspended operations due to several challenges,” said Mr Hari.
“These include equipment which we are getting from contractors. Kanyemba is a bit far and there were challenges in getting the contractor to operate here in Kanyemba so we have decided to start the road from Mahuhwe coming towards Kanyemba.
“It is our hope that we will reach Kanyemba eventually we are not neglecting the road from Kanyemba what we are saying is we are starting from Mahuhwe where it is feasible. We were doing the 3,5km in-house and we decided to float a tender for contractors to do that project. However, we did not find any suitable takers.
“We are constructing 10km of the road from Mahuhwe to Kanyemba and we have completed 10 percent of the road. By the end of the year we hope to have completed the 10km.”
Mr Hari said all single carriage bridges along the road will be upgraded to dual carriage which is suitable for the road.
“We have a number of bridges on the way to Kanyemba and they are single carriage meaning motorist have to give way to each other at the bridge. The road will be dualised and we will need funding to upgrade the bridges. At the moment we are upgrading Pembi Bridge,” he said.
District Development Fund provincial roads manager Mr Emmanuel Chisanduro said a road contractor pulled out of the Mariga road project due to high cost of operations.
“At the moment we haven’t found another contractor to construct the road.
“The contractor sited that it was not viable because of high cost of spares and fuel plus the distance.
“He said it was expensive for him to do the road. We are mobilising material for Mwazamutanda Bridge along the same road,” said Mr Chisanduro.